(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to novel polyether polymers which are particularly useful for solvation of electrons. The polymer can be treated with alkali metals so that electrons are disassociated from the alkali metal into the structure of the polymer. Electrons can be introduced by photolysis, electrochemically from an electride or alkalide or from a radio-isotrope among other means. Electron withdrawing group attached along the backbone of the polyether polymer attract the electrons from the alkali metal or other source.
(2) Description of Related Art
There are tremendous practical limitations on use of crystalline substances as key structural elements in technology. Unfortunately, magnetic materials are invariably crystalline and therefore not easily processed. Polymers represent an important format for the preparation of substances for general utility applications and are easily the most widespread in use of all man-made materials. The methods used to process them are many and allow the production of a myriad of formats including films, sheets, blocks, wires, coatings, pellets, laminates, colloids, nano-systems and fibers. In addition, solutions of polymers or polymer melts can be used for patterning of surfaces using stenciling, lithographic, electrostatic, magnetostatic, laser printing or jet printing technologies. The ability to produce advanced materials in such formats has driven technology. Success in the development of a general class of stable polymeric organic substances with special optical, electronic or magnetic properties that could be processed by such methods would represent a significant advance in material science.
Much theoretical and practical research has been performed on the energetics of electron captured by hexafluorobenzene and on the structure and properties of the resulting radical anion species (Sowada, U., et al., J. Phys. Chem. 84 1150–1154 (1980); Nyikos, L., et al., J. Phys. Chem. 84 1154–1155 (1980); van den Ende, C., et al., Radiat. Phys. Chem. 19 297–308 (1982); Shchegoleva, L. N., et al., chemical physics Letters 312 325–332 (1999); Beregovaya, I. V., et al., International Journal of Quantum Chemistry 88 481–488 (2002); Stass, D. V., et al., chemical physics Letters 243 533–539 (1995); Oomori, T., et al., Chemical Physics 178 477–481 (1993); Faidas, H., et al., Chemical Physics Letters 193 487–492 (1992); and Gant, K. S., et al., The Journal of chemical Physics 65, 2977–2981 (1976)). Hexafluorobenzene has a very high cross section for electron capture. The energy required to bounce the electron back out of the radical anion has been estimated at 0.5 to 0.8 eV based on theoretical analyses (Faidas, H., et al., Chemical Physics Letters 193 487–492 (1992)). Consistent with this, the wavelength of light required to cause the photo-dissociation of the radical anion to a free election and Hexafluorobenzene in the gas phase by laser induced separation has been found experimentally to be ˜450 nm (2.75 eV) (Sowada, U., et al., J. Phys. Chem. 84 1150–1154 (1980)). This is in the green area of the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum. In one such study, (Faidas, H., et al., Chemical Physics Letters 193 487–492 (1992)) it was demonstrated that a laser pulse to the radical anion in the gas phase at this wavelength in the presence of an electric potential triggered dissociation and a current pulse that fell to zero within 1 nano second of the end of the laser pulse. The wavelength at which this photodissociation process takes place has special practical significance. If it occurred at lower wavelength (blue or UV) the cost availability of lasers that operate in these areas would be a limitation. If the wavelength were in the red or near IR region then the electron would be so loosely held that the system would be extremely reactive and chemically unstable at room temperature and would reduce most things it came in contact with.
Electride and alkalide compounds are well known to those skilled in the art. Such compounds are highly unstable at room temperatures. The alkalides and electrides are able to react with metal salts to form metals.
Polyether polymers are well known to those skilled in the prior art. The types of polyether polymers disclosed herein are not known to the prior art.